


Pacific Rim: This Time There's Superpowers!

by bat_country



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Gen, M/M, and emphasis on Mako, emphasis on Stacker, kind of follows movie timeline, with emphasis on the K-Science officers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-11
Updated: 2013-09-11
Packaged: 2017-12-26 07:10:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/963066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bat_country/pseuds/bat_country
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Basically it's just a Pacific Rim AU where most of them have superpowers, hooray! It's unfortunately a bit skimpy on some of the characters. Stacker Pentecost, Newton Geiszler, Hermann Gottlieb, and Mako Mori spend most of the time in the spotlight, with a little side of implied Newton/Hermann. That's about the size of it!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pacific Rim: This Time There's Superpowers!

**STACKER PENTECOST**

Stacker, twenty-three years old, was early for his date. He was sitting in a crowded, expensive restaurant and took a deep breath. He was a little nervous. To distract himself, he started people-watching, and noticed the sparks everywhere. After all, it _was_ a fancy restaurant. This was date central.

Stacker’s special power allowed him to see the connections that people made. He could tell when a connection was strong or when it was going to break, when it needed work, and when it would never become anything more than what it already was. But more interestingly – at least to him – he could see the connections that _will_ be. For instance, he looked at a man who, much like himself, was waiting for a date. The other man was nervously glancing at a window, catching his reflection and running a hand through his hair, hoping that it looked all right. Soon, a young woman arrived and greeted him.

“I saw your pocket square,” she said, smiling and pointing to the red square in the man’s jacket pocket. The two introduced themselves – it was clearly a blind date. Stacker knew from past experience that simple introduction did not necessarily make a connection, but he saw that lines began moving between the man and the woman and he smiled. This was a connection yet to be. This man and woman weren’t anything to each other now, but in the future they would be sharing a bond. It was as clear as day to Stacker.

But then he spotted a different couple across the room from him.

A man and a woman, about mid-forties, were sullenly looking at their food and not at each other. The connection between them didn’t have sparks, and was tenuous and breaking, but it was still there. And it could be repaired. Stacker noticed wedding rings on both of them. He was sure then that this marriage was on the rocks, but he felt a sense of hope looking at that flimsy line – like a frayed rope – hovering between the man and the woman, trying its best to stay intact. It could be strengthened. That rope could be wound together with a stronger rope.

Stacker ordered a bottle of wine and had it sent to their table.

 

**HERC HANSEN**

Once, when Herc accidentally dropped his newspaper and looked down at the wrong moment, he’d been hit by a bus. He ended up with a headache and a hell of a story for his girlfriend.

 

**MAKO MORI**

Being in a family full of superpowered individuals had led Mako to believe that she, too, would one day have superpowers. Her father could bend metal to his will and forged beautiful and strong swords. Her mother and sister shared the gift of telekinesis.

Mako waited for the day that her gift would show itself.

 

**NEWTON GEISZLER**

Newton was always small for his age, but age sixteen was truly an awkward stage for him. He was gangly, his hair stuck out in all directions, and his bark was _way_ louder than his bite.

“Dude, I’m with the band,” he tried to say smoothly. The bouncer, who was the size about _four_ Newton Geiszlers, rolled his eyes at him.

Well, fine. If plain words wouldn’t do the trick, then maybe Newt’s special power would. “Dude. I’m _with the band_ ,” Newt repeated. For a split second, a white ring flashed in both of his green eyes. 

“Oh… sorry! Go right ahead, kid,” said the bouncer, removing the velvet rope and stepping aside for Newt.

“Sweet,” Newt said to himself.

 

**STACKER PENTECOST**

When Onibaba goes down, there is a brief moment of sensory overload as Stacker feels the gratitude of all the people whose lives he’s touched – and saved – by killing the monster. It only lasts for a moment, though, since these people are unknown to him and he will never meet them.

One connection remained when the others fell away. Stacker was overcome. He closed his eyes as he felt the strongest connection he had ever felt in his life. He needed to see where it was coming from. He could feel it as well as see it – an electric, twisting rope, moving and shifting, changing colors every few seconds. It appeared when Onibaba died and was growing stronger by the minute. 

Stacker exited Coyote Tango, and when his eyes met the small, brave girl who survived Onibaba and smiled at him, showing she was not afraid anymore, his heart was filled with joy.

 

**HERMANN GOTTLIEB**

It was _that_ pillar. That one right there, Hermann thought, as he sat in his sister Karla’s living room.  That was the one that would one day injure his leg.

Karla was working in Long Beach, and Hermann was visiting, but it was mostly a business thing. He was spending most of his time with the PPDC branch there, helping to rewrite jaeger code but mostly using his “predictive model” to foretell kaiju attacks.

Hermann snorted. Predictive model. Hermann’s expertise in abstract mathematics was astounding, but the kaiju were beasts. Mindless killing beasts. They weren’t robots or machines. Animals did not necessarily behave in predictable ways. Even if the kaiju weren’t _sentient_ they couldn’t be relied upon to act in some kind of pre-programmed manner. Hermann was still not entirely sure how he’d managed to fool such a large amount of people into believing that an _equation_ could tell them when the kaiju would attack, but he was willing to go with it. It certainly didn’t hurt that his reputation in mathematics was formidable.

If there was one thing he’d learned in his life, it was that his power was not a gift. It was a curse, and it was the sort of curse that could drive people insane. He would never reveal that it was precognition and not mathematics that told him when and where the kaiju would appear, because that led to a slippery slope of people asking for lottery numbers and racehorse winners and should I have said yes and which job offer is going to be better in the end and is that person really my soulmate, and if not then who is, and oh God, how am I going to die? _When_ am I going to die? Can you see far enough into the future to know what happens after you die?

These were questions Hermann was not going to answer.

Hermann just stared at the pillar in his sister’s living room.

 

**NEWTON GEISZLER**

“Come on, you’re killing me,” Newt groaned.

“Sorry! Sold out!”

“Don’t hold out on me,” Newt said, pounding his fist on the window of the box office. He was late. He _needed_ to see this band, but getting caught up in some experiments in the lab meant he didn’t get to the club early enough.

The girl in the ticket booth just shrugged helplessly.

Newt said, “Come on, you probably have like, extras for VIPs or something.” Newt’s expression hardened as he locked eyes with the girl. Newt’s eyes turned white and he said, “Give me one of your extra tickets.” 

“Really sorry, sir. Totally packed house tonight. Sold out.”

Newt looked taken aback. “Oh. Wow. You really _are_ sold out.”

“That’s what I keep telling you.”

 

**HERMANN GOTTLIEB**

Today was the day that Yamarashi would strike. Hermann made all the preparations he could. His friends and family were going to be in a shelter. He made certain that Karla would be safe, and that she knew where she was supposed to be. He was going to be nowhere near Karla’s house and the damn pillar that was supposed to fall on his leg. 

Hermann was anxious and confused. His precognition always told him a future that couldn’t be changed. Ever. But if he made sure not to be at the house, then how was he ever going to lose the full use of one of his legs? If he knew when and where the kaiju was going to be, how was it possible that he wasn’t going to avoid the monster? He didn’t know, but he was going to head to that shelter and meet Karla and then maybe laugh to himself as they cheated death. 

The night before, Hermann had told Karla exactly what would happen that day. Yamarashi would emerge and attack Long Beach. The kaiju would ruin the freeway, so Karla needed to get herself to the public shelter early in the day. “Give yourself plenty of time,” he had said. “I think I’m going to get hurt today. Hurt badly. I keep seeing it. Let’s both stay out of this house as much as possible tomorrow.”

When Hermann arrived at the shelter, he found his friends, but no Karla. Fear gripped his heart and then Hermann’s body stiffened as his precognition washed over him. It was the kind of vision that was as clear as if he were there. The rare kind. He watched the next fifteen minutes unfold.

_Karla, whose car had refused to start, has started calling neighbors to ask for a jump start or a ride. The people living right next to her are already gone. She has wasted valuable minutes pounding on their doors. Karla tries to call the person she thinks might be closest to her. The cell phone lines are starting to become jammed, as they always do in an attack. She darts into her house to use the landline. Yamarashi is nowhere to be seen even though the sounds of his destruction can be heard in the distance. Yamarashi is still terrorizing the freeway several miles away. Karla still has time. There isn’t even much traffic on the way to the shelter. The traffic would start soon, though. She has time but she has to hurry. She grabs the landline phone. An earthquake hits and it’s the San Andreas fault that gets her and pins her to the floor with a fallen bookcase, not the kaiju._

Hermann was driving when his cell phone beeped. Precious Karla, who was one of the few people Hermann trusted with his power, was awake and lucid enough to send him a text message, which went through unlike the voice calls that were always jammed during an attack.

“DON’T YOU DARE COME FOR ME. DON’T COME NEAR THIS HOUSE.”

So this was how Hermann had been forced to return to the house. He rescued his sister. He pulled her out from under the bookcase, and told her to start running, because he’d be right behind her. But by the time Hermann had fought the traffic and arrived at Karla’s house, so had Yamarashi, and the pillar fell onto his leg after all.

 

**MAKO MORI**

Mako fought back tears as Stacker said, “Get back up.” She forced her face to show no emotion and stood back up. She grabbed her staff and put herself into the ready position.

“You will be as prepared as possible when you spar with the others tomorrow,” Stacker told her. “Begin.” 

Mako’s body ached and she wondered if she was going to pass out from sheer exhaustion. Not for the first time, she desperately wished she had some kind of special power. Anything physical like super strength, or endurance. Or even a mental power that would allow her to fool her opponents in a fight. Something – _anything_ – to give her an advantage. Tomorrow, she was going to be thrown into the sparring ring and was likely to be the smallest one there. Right then, Mako didn’t think that she had ever been so tired in her life, but she knew that tomorrow things would be even worse. 

Mako had nothing but ordinary human strength and willpower to lift herself off of the mat with when Stacker knocked her down time and time again. She picked up her staff and assumed her ready stance.

 

**STACKER PENTECOST**

As Marshal, it’s Stacker’s job to make the hard decisions. He was standing with another Pan Pacific Defense Corps officer whose connection to him was waning. Stacker could see that the orange and purple lines between himself and the other officer were fading slowly and would eventually become colorless. It meant that this man, as well as so many others, would soon be losing his job at the PPDC and leaving.

The officer was holding a tablet and made a few selections on it as they discussed the budget cuts. “Next up – well, we’re going to have enough money for one biologist. Of those who have expressed interest in staying with the PPDC, my team and I recommend Seo or Greenberg.” 

Stacker nodded his head to show that he acknowledged the idea, but disagreed. “I’m sorry. I would like to keep Geiszler.” 

“ _Him_? I mean – he’s great, he’s brilliant – but you know, we have to keep Gottlieb. Nobody else can pinpoint the kaiju attacks like he can. And they _hate_ each other.”

Stacker simply held his stoic expression firmly and repeated, “I would like to keep Geiszler.”

The officer kept his composure, but shrugged. “You’re the one who asked my team to handle these. We put a lot of thought into each of the selections. As I said, we _have_ to keep Gottlieb. And we know Geiszler’s really enthusiastic about the kaiju – and he’s smart! – but we have plenty of other brilliant biologists who could do the same work. You know, ones that Gottlieb _tolerates_.”

The logic was there. But the feeling was not. Stacker saw a weak but stable connection between Hermann Gottlieb and Seo Sang-hoon. He saw an equally weak one between Gottlieb and CJ Greenberg. They were perfectly normal, healthy working relationships.

“Sir?” the officer prompted. 

Stacker saw a burst of color when Hermann Gottlieb and Newton Geiszler fought. They _did_ hate each other. But there is only one word that Stacker could find to describe the connection he saw between them, and that word was _volatile_. There were explosions of light and color nearly unlike any other connection Stacker’s ever seen. Part of that is the connection that already exists between Gottlieb and Geiszler, but a whole different part is the connection that is yet to be. Something was going to happen. Something big. Stacker couldn’t tell the future, but he knew that something great would happen if he stuck the two of them together. Something that wouldn’t happen if he partnered Gottlieb with any of the other perfectly qualified biologists.

“Call it a gut feeling,” Stacker finally said.

 

**NEWTON GEISZLER**

Newt clumsily removed his gloves so that he could wipe the tears from his eyes. “Oh, come on!” he cried between laughs. “It’s not like I’d ever make you do something _bad_! Come on, you know me, I’d only ever stick to _Aw, no harm done_ stuff. And only when it’s called for. Because you’ve been yelling at me _all day_ , dude.”

Hermann was seething. “Newton, I promise you, if you should _ever_ turn your powers of persuasion on me ever again, I will fling you into the Breach myself.” 

“I would just bounce back.” 

“Newton, speak one more word, and I will strike you,” Hermann said, his face now utterly calm and serene as he raised his cane.

Newt obediently remained wordless, but clamped his hands over his mouth and sputtered out giggles.

Hermann turned his eyes heavenward as he asked pityingly, “Are you an adult, Newton? Are you in your thirties?”

Newt nodded that yes, yes he _was_ in his mid-thirties, and continued his giggling as he looked at Hermann’s chalkboard, which read, “ _I, HERMANN GOTTLIEB, DRESS LIKE A GRANDPA AND SMELL LIKE KAIJU FARTS_ ” in Hermann’s own hand.

 

**RALEIGH BECKET**

It was dangerous work, but Raleigh didn’t mind. Heights didn’t scare him. He wondered if maybe he was taking advantage of the better ration card he got from working the top of the wall, but then again, he figured maybe he was doing some other poor man a favor. A man who might’ve taken the top-of-the-wall job out of desperation and accidentally fallen to his death. A man who couldn’t fly.

 

**TENDO CHOI**

Lots of people assumed that Tendo Choi was one of the superpowered, for whatever reason. They assumed correctly. But Tendo was amazed at how often people were wrong about what his power actually was. He thought it was obvious. Sometimes people guessed that he had some kind of super endurance or something, or that he could survive without sleep. Tendo just laughed and let them believe what they wanted to believe. The endless Breach monitoring day and night – hey, that was all coffee and bagels. Lots of coffee.

No, Tendo was a technopath. Tendo the Technopath even had a cool ring to it, he often thought. He was the world’s most proficient hacker who didn’t know how to hack. He couldn’t explain to anybody how to get past even the simplest security measures on a computer, but he could speak _to_ the computer and ask it to let him in. It was how he had found his grandfather so quickly on K-Day. His grandfather could have been at the grocery store, or taking a walk in the park, or anywhere at all in his neighborhood, but Tendo had made a beeline straight for his apartment when the first attack happened. It didn’t matter that thousands of other people owned the same model cell phone as his grandfather did – Tendo felt the unique signature coming from the specific one his grandfather held and ran straight to it. 

Each morning at LOCCENT, Tendo connected to the machines that were set up near the Breach and asked them to tell him if there was any movement. Anything at all.

 

 **MAKO MORI**  

Mako knew in her heart that the Marshal did not play favorites, so she let herself be proud of her promotion. She was to be overseeing the reconstruction of the jaegers, and knew it was because she was smart and capable. She worked alongside engineers who had special, superpowered abilities. Knowing how the circuitry and electronics of the jaegers worked were like second nature to some of them. Mako, on the other hand, studied hard and memorized. She made mistakes and then corrected them. She learned. Stacker saw what a valuable asset that was to his team and put her in charge.

 

**STACKER PENTECOST**

When Stacker saw them, he saw Drift compatibility. What he saw frightened him.  He had already lost too much and couldn’t bear to lose Mako, too. When he saw Raleigh and Mako, he saw the brilliant colors of a strong bond moving back and forth between them and he hoped desperately that she would stay safe.

 

**HERMANN GOTTLIEB**

Hermann was working out an equation for an improvement to the jaegers’ operating systems when Newt suddenly interrupted him. “Are you pretending to work, Herm?”

“What? Don’t call me that.” Hermann refocused on his math, intending to ignore Newton, but then frowned and stopped writing. “What do you mean, ‘pretending’?”

“I mean, I know your math, dude. That is, I’m not like an expert on the stuff the way you are. But I can kind of figure out some of the stuff you’re working on and you’ve _never_ , _ever_ worked on any math that had to do with the Breach.” 

“You’re out of your mind. These equations here…”

“Oh, right. Yeah. I mean, I know you worked out where the Breach _is_. But you’ve never done any calculations to predict… well, when the kaiju attack. Which is kind of a big deal.” 

Now Hermann had fully turned around to stare down Newton.

Newton continued, “I’m not saying you don’t do good work. The stuff you did for the jaegers – that’s good, solid stuff. I just don’t think you’ve ever calculated any of the kaiju attacks, Herm.”

“Don’t call me that.” 

“Are you… _pretending_ to work on a predictive model to cover up for the fact that you have some other way of knowing when the kaiju will strike?” 

“That’s putting it bluntly,” was all Hermann had to say. 

It was, but Newt’s voice suddenly became softer and gentler. “Are you… like me?”

Hermann looked down at his shoes. He didn’t answer for a few moments, but then finally said, “I’m not _pretending_. Well, all right, sometimes I write out some gibberish when the Marshal is here and asking about my latest insights on the ‘predictive model’ and when the next attack will be, and I might babble some math jargon at him when I tell him the answer so that I can keep my job here as a mathematician, but I’m not _pretending_ to do work, as you accused! You said so yourself – I work hard on the operating system code, I maintain and update the code and make adjustments as needed, and I spent _months_ working on locating the Breach!”

“You didn’t answer my question,” was all Newt said in response to Hermann’s outburst.

When Hermann remained silent, Newt shrugged and said, “Well, then, how about _this_ question? I know you haven’t released all the details of the model, but still, how have you managed to keep your ‘predictive model’ from _other_ mathematicians? How do you keep them from getting it and revealing that it's gibberish?”

Hermann then looked up at Newt, his expression open and sincere for once. “Oh, it's quite simple. I just tell them, ‘That information is proprietary.’”

 

**NEWTON GEISZLER**

Newt had never used his ability in his academic career. He never wanted to. He had the brains for it, not the supernatural power. He prided himself on his intelligence. There had been so many times when he’d had to _prove_ himself right – especially because of his age and entering college so early. Newt doubted his own ideas sometimes, but not today. He held his gaze confidently at Stacker Pentecost and Hercules Hansen. He knew he could find valuable information about the kaiju and the Breach if only he could just get them to listen…

Newt shook his head to clear his thoughts as he pleaded with his commanding officers. He needed that Pons equipment. It would be so easy. All he needed to do was ask. Just ask.

“No, no, not like a whole kaiju. Just a tiny piece of its brain!" 

Newt’s eyes stayed green, and so Herc Hansen told him that the neural surge would be too much for a human brain and said no. Stacker Pentecost said no. Newt was denied his Pons equipment, and Pentecost had asked Hermann Gottlieb for _his_ data, and that was that. 

Dejected, Newt stammered a bit and tried to plead for a moment more before being dismissed by Pentecost with a simple “Thank you, Newt.”

Newt heaved a grievous sigh as he watched everyone walk away.

Whatever. It was fine. He would find another way. He would not manipulate his commanding officers by turning on his powers of persuasion. Sure, they might have shot down _this_ idea, but no one had believed in Newt Geiszler before the way Stacker Pentecost and Herc Hansen had, and Newt refused to use his manipulation on them.

 

**HERMANN GOTTLIEB**

There were times when Hermann’s power was more of a gift than a curse. Death and sickness were not things he could count on to reliably come to him in his visions, so he thanked his lucky stars that the pictures had flashed in his head with enough time for him to run to Newton’s side and tear off the Pons helmet made of _garbage_.

 

**TENDO CHOI**

Lots of people thought that whoever had programmed the AI for handling the neural bridge between the jaeger pilots was just a particularly sassy engineer. But others knew that it was just Tendo.

Tendo used his microphone intercom when he needed the pilots to hear his instructions. He channeled his thoughts into the machine when he needed to give status updates to everyone on deck.

“Neural handshake initiated,” the machine said for him.

“Neural handshake strong and holding,” Tendo reiterated for Stacker’s benefit.

When Raleigh and Mako went out of alignment and Tendo had failed to calm down the machines, he had yanked out the main power and forgot to reign in a sarcastic thought that went through his head.

“Drift sequence terminated. Would you like to try again?”

 

**RALEIGH BECKET**

Raleigh couldn’t remember the last time he’d been able to talk so freely with someone other than Yancy. He smiled at Mako, the only person who was willing to share a meal with him after that near-disaster of a Drift test run. They sat perched on one of the highest levels of the gantry opposite Gipsy Danger.

The way Mako smiled at him gave Raleigh confidence. He smiled back at her and said, “Let me show you something cool.” He held out his arm in a silent request for permission to hold her, and she moved a little closer to him. Raleigh was a perfect gentleman as he held her securely, and then used his power of flight to bring them both down to the ground level in a fraction of the time it’d taken them to climb up there.

Raleigh looked at Mako expectantly, his face earnest, anxiously wondering if she would react with amazement or fear or admiration or maybe some combination of all of them. Instead she simply laughed at him and glanced back up to where they had been sitting. “Raleigh, our lunch trays,” she said.

“Oh.”

 

**HERMANN GOTTLIEB**

Then there were other times that his power seemed more like a curse. Hermann could not make sense of the images he was seeing. He had never been able to control how specific the images were or even how often he got them. The images simply appeared whenever they wanted. Now, Hermann’s gift of precognition was telling him that there would soon be three kaiju. A triple event. He could even see when and where. But the pictures in his head showed him only two kaiju. He growled in frustration and slammed his cane on the ground. It didn’t make sense.

 

 **TENDO CHOI**  

Leatherback’s EMP killed everything electronic for miles. For a moment, Tendo was frozen in shock. He could still see, hear, and speak, but cut off from his machines, he was convinced that this was how it must feel to be locked in a sensory deprivation chamber. Tendo almost shook from the sudden coldness of the machines dead all around him, but quickly straightened up like the professional that he was.

Tendo couldn’t speak to Striker Eureka when she was so far away and powered off. He explained quickly to Stacker that he could reroute the auxiliary power, but even with his special gift, it would take hours.

“Not all of them,” Raleigh was saying. “Gipsy’s analog. Nuclear.” 

Tendo goggled at him. “Are you kidding? The circuitry and wiring in her is still – never mind. You know what, never mind. Just give me just a second. This could work. I can bring her back online myself, and then you can take her out to the kaiju.”

Tendo sprang up out of his chair and raced to the loading bay towards Gipsy Danger to power her on by speaking to her the way only he could.

 

**CHUCK HANSEN**

“You think I’m any good out here? In the middle of the _ocean_?!” Chuck screamed at his father. 

“I know you can use your head, Chuck. You can make it work. Are we just going to argue about this? You and I are the only things standing between that ugly bastard and a city of ten million people. Now, we have a choice here: we either sit and wait, or we take these flare guns and do something _really stupid_.” 

Chuck and Herc were no longer connected by the Drift technology, but they were no less in sync. They stood atop Striker Eureka and fired their flare guns in unison. One was a direct hit in the eye of Leatherback. Chuck raised both his arms and used the spark. He turned the spark bigger and bigger until he had an enormous fire that burned out all the eyes of Leatherback. The kaiju screamed and clawed at its face, dunking himself into the water. But Chuck maintained a flame swirling in the air above the water, and was ready to attack again once the kaiju rose back up. Leatherback finally tried to lash out at the two jaeger pilots on Striker Eureka, but the distinct sound of choppers in the distance interrupted him. 

With a crash, Gipsy Danger landed in the ocean and delivered a blow to the blinded kaiju. Chuck screamed, pumping a fist into the air. “Yeah, kick his ass, Gipsy!”

 

**NEWTON GEISZLER**

Newt was now good and tired of reigning in his morals and conscience when it came to using his powers. He was shaken up, cut, bloody, and had nearly been _eaten_. Newt was a mess. Even his glasses were cracked and fogged up and splotched with blood. Hannibal Chau was not able to see the white rings flash in Newt’s eyes behind the damaged glasses when he pointed at him defiantly and demanded, “ _You owe me a kaiju brain_.”

Newt relished being dramatic.

 

**HERC HANSEN**

Herc had outlived his wife, his childhood best friend, and a countless number of jaeger pilots. He had long since stopped questioning his immortality, but now, as he watched Stacker Pentecost and his only son walk away to what was essentially a suicide mission, he started doing it again. He couldn’t stop saying to himself, _why_?! He couldn’t stay dead. So why couldn’t he heal unless he had died and come back?  His arm injury made it physically impossible for him to co-pilot Striker Eureka when he was the only person who made _sense_ to be there. He could be blown up, drowned, stuck at the bottom of the ocean, and he’d be hurting, but he would come out all right in the end. But not if he couldn’t pilot the jaeger to get to the fight in the first place.

Herc wondered if he should shoot himself to see if he would return with his body intact and in perfect fighting shape. But his own life was not something he had ever experimented or toyed with. He had never let his special ability make him careless. Herc was brave, not reckless. What if the death had to be accidental? What if _intention_ made sure he stayed dead?  

He fought tears as he watched his son walk away. Herc could endure anything. He hoped he could endure this.

 

**NEWTON GEISZLER**

The Drift showed Newt what Hermann had been reluctant to say out loud. That when he was younger, he had not known just how careful he should be and learned the hard way that some things were best kept secret. Hermann used to blurt things out without thinking. A friend from his university found out he would die in a horrifically grisly accident and became nearly insane from constant worry and fear. He continued to live his life always looking over his shoulder, trying to sleep with one eye open.  

Newt had suspected why Hermann had clammed up when confronted about his special power, but now he _understood_.

 

**HERMANN GOTTLIEB**

In turn, it was revealed in the Drift to Hermann that Newt had once made a conscious decision never to use his power of persuasion on his fellow K-Science officer. Except for that one time with the chalkboard. To Newt, that time “didn’t count,” because it was so silly and harmless. Newt refused to use his power on those he cared about. Hermann now felt how much Newt really did care. How much he meant to Newt.

Newt felt it too. He also saw the way Hermann had been impressed - and maybe even a little touched - that Newt had been the only person to see through that fake predictive model and figure him out.

Hermann felt Newt seeing into his visions through the Drift. He had known all along that Newt would survive his first experimental Drift with the kaiju brain. It was only because Hermann cared that he had been so frightened for Newt. In the Drift, Hermann could feel rather than hear Newt saying, _Hey, I know._

Hermann decided it was probably okay to forgive him for that thing about the kaiju farts.

 

**MAKO MORI**

Mako had stopped waiting for her gift years ago. There were times in her youth when it depressed her to know she had no special abilities, but most of the time now, she was at peace with it. Sometimes she still wished for a gift, but those moments didn't last long. She had accepted that she was nothing extraordinary.

It wasn’t until she was fighting alongside not only Raleigh Becket but also Chuck Hansen and Stacker Pentecost – her guardian and mentor – that she realized that she didn’t need any gifts. She had already killed two kaiju without one. She was strong enough without one. She had learned to struggle through physical exhaustion and force herself through mental hardship. She was resilient and brave. She was determined. She could hold her own. She was the daughter of a respected swordsman, after all.

She _was_ extraordinary.

Mako proudly raised the sword of Gipsy Danger that she had designed herself and cried out defiantly as she and Raleigh ripped Raiju clean in half.

In the Drift, Mako felt Raleigh’s mind. He was thinking that she was the coolest person on the planet, and that was _including_ every person he had ever met who had superpowers.

 

**NEWTON GEISZLER AND HERMANN GOTTLIEB**

“Is your radio out of batteries?” Newt asked, trying to shake the water out of his own radio.

Hermann nodded with a grimace.

“Well, damn. Mine's fried. Okay. Let’s just get this baby back to the Shatterdome as fast as we can,” Newt exclaimed as he and Hermann hopped into the helicopter.

As Newt and Hermann anxiously waited to get back to the Shatterdome and deliver the news of what they’d found out about the Breach, they had a few moments to catch their breaths.

“Hey, Hermann?”

“Yes?”

“You know, about what I said about your old grandpa clothes…”

“I know. I forgive you.”

“Oh, well, I was going to say that I kind of like the clothes." 

“What I don’t forgive you for is making me push the limits of my intestinal fortitude.”

Newt couldn’t help grinning. It seemed he could put aside any worries he might have had about there being any less bickering in their relationship now.

Newt decided to go for broke and asked, “Do you see anything _weird_ in our future?”

“ _Our_ future?”

“Yeah. I mean, like, is there anything that I could possibly do that would ever surprise you? Or would you always see me coming at you with kaiju guts from a mile away?”

“Newton, you will never cease to surprise me.” 

“What do you think I’m going to do if we close the Breach and save the world?” 

“Stop asking me. You know I don’t like people asking me about the future.”

“I know, I promise I won’t after this one. So what if -”

“Gentlemen, we’re almost there,” shouted the pilot.

“Hermann, what if I -”

“Get ready to get out of the helicopter, Newton!” Hermann screamed.

“But what if -”

“I’d probably say yes! Now get out!”

 

**STACKER PENTECOST**

Stacker felt that the bond between himself and Mako wasn’t fading, even with his own death imminent. He held his composure and didn’t sob when he wondered if there were any others like him out there in the world. Others who could see and feel connections. If someone else like him were there inside Striker Eureka, what would they see? Would they be able to see that the connection between him and Mako was about to be lost forever? Would those colors fade slowly over time or would they be gone the instant he died?

Usually, both parties have to be present for Stacker to actually _see_ a connection, although both don’t have to be there for him to _feel_ them. But when he looked at Chuck Hansen, beautiful waves of color were emanating from him that represented the bond he had with his father. This wasn’t something Stacker had ever seen before, but he instantly knew what it meant and it almost made him laugh.

Although the lines and colors that represent Drift compatibility would fade, the rest of the colors would not. The bond between Herc and Chuck Hansen would remain. Every time Herc would think fondly of his son, every time an object reminded him of Chuck, or even in the moments when anger over his death overtook Herc, the colors would dance. Stacker knew, then, that the colors coming from his own body would always remain with Mako. As long as the memory of her sensei gave Mako strength, the colors would never be extinguished.

So Stacker pressed the button of the intercom and told her, “You can always find me in the Drift.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Raleigh's power is because every time I see him slide down that construction wall it gives me the heebie-jeebies. There isn't even a harness or anything! LIKE WHO DOES THAT
> 
> Acknowledgments:  
> I can't claim credit to this idea, because [windsweptfic](http://archiveofourown.org/users/windsweptfic) just up and asked me, "If they had superpowers, what would Newt and Hermann have?" and I just went O___O and suddenly an entire fic was written. (Also, she came up with the powers for the Hansens and Tendo!) So if you did enjoy this, please go send her some praises! 
> 
> And many, many thanks to [Moonfoot](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonfoot/pseuds/Moonfoot) for beta-ing this! 
> 
> Also, if anybody happens to know me from Tumblr: pocket squares, yo. Hi, guys. This is my desperate attempt to contribute something, however small, even if it's JUST an implication*, to the beautiful, beautiful fandom that is Newton/Hermann. [ _wipes tears from eyes_ ]
> 
> COA:  
> This is just for my own amusement. No copyright infringement intended. Any resemblances you may find to actual people, living or dead, shows you have strange friends.
> 
>  
> 
> *Not the kind of implication that involves Dennis Reynolds and a boat. (OR IS IT.)


End file.
